International studio (19.1903)

MEDAL BY A]MEE KAPIN

Yet it is not, as a rule, the head and face which
most strongiy attract the artist's attention; he has
made comparativeiy few busts, and very few portraits
—^these iast, moreover, preferably in the very low
reiief which gives such attractive translucency and
iends itself so weii to decoration. His concep-
tion is of the whole hgure, with its appropriate
gesture in which every muscle has its due part.
The head, therefore, is but part of the general
scheme; and were it wanting, that scheme,
although incomplete, would still be plain to the
spectator. And it is by this inclusion of the
organic whole in one conception that Trentacoste
touches the classics, while remaining a child of
his age in the nature of the conceptions them-
selves. Look, for instance, at the hgure of
the Za (page 145), and notice how
every muscle of the body has its due share in its
expression of the grief the whole statue portrays.

Those who do not yet know Trentacoste's
work, may make its acquaintance at Venice
this year through two statues, which will show
the artist at his best, and which have already
inspired a French critic to write two charming
sonnets. I. M. A.
^ ENEVA.—The subject of these notes
g is a striking example of the com-
W *W" pensations of Nature for her ap-
parent cruelty; and also of what
the genuine artist is capable of achieving notwith-
standing the most singular disadvantages. Some

years "ago in the little town of Payerne, in the
Canton of Vaud, a child was born who was found
to be without arms. One day the mother, while
standing near a rose-bush with her infant in her
arms, was astonished to observe one of its tiny
toes clasp the stem of a rose. Little did she
guess at the time that these prehensile toes were
destined one day to serve an artist, in the exe-
cution of her work, with the same marvellous
facility as hands. As the child grew up the
greatest care was bestowed upon her education.
Sheearlymanifested unmistakableartistic promise,
and at the age of sixteen was sent to the Iilcole
des Beaux Arts, in Geneva. Here she studied
with brilliant success under Hebert, Barthelemy
Menn and Hugues Bovy. She, afterwards, spent
several months in Paris, and then returned to
Geneva, where she began her artistic career, and
where she has produced work which reveals a
growing mastery of the materials of her art, and
a temperament of rare vitality and sincerity.

For reasons we have already mentioned, Mdlle.
Aimee Rapin holds a unique position amongst that
valiant and distinguished group of Swiss lady artists


" SOMME]L "

BY A]MEE RAP]N
147